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The effect of GdF3 on red emission of Eu3+: LiYF4 single crystals grown by the Bridgman method

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Abstract

The bulk LiYF4 single crystals with high-quality doped 0.5 mol% Eu3+ and various Gd3+ from 1.5 to 4.5 mol% in size of about Φ 10 × 65 mm were successfully grown by an improved Bridgman method. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurement and Rietveld refinement analysis were conducted to verify the structure of the obtained crystal crystals. The spectroscopic properties of the single crystals as change of GdF3 concentration were investigated with the help of absorption, excitation, emission spectra, and decay curves of their fluorescence. The characteristic absorption bands of Gd3+ at 277 nm and Eu3+ at 395 nm were observed in the co-doped samples. Significant enhanced emission intensity of 613 nm was observed as increasing of GdF3 content into Eu3+:LiYF4 single crystal upon excitations of both 277 nm and 395 nm lights. The former was owing to the energy transfer (ET) between Gd3+ and Eu3+, while the latter was due to the change of crystal field environment around Eu3+ by the increasing of GdF3 content. The ET from Gd3+ to Eu3+ ions was further confirmed from the result of the luminescence decay analysis. Besides, the full width half-maximum (FWHM) of 613 nm emission band was estimated to be ~ 4.5 nm. The Eu3+/Gd3+ co-doped LiYF4 single crystal with excellent optical and physicochemical properties might has significant applications in red laser and display devices.

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All data used during the study appear in the submitted article.

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Acknowledgements

The work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (No. LY22E020002), the Natural Science Foundation of Ningbo (Nos. 2021J077 and 202003N4099), and K.C. Wong Magna Fund in Ningbo University.

Funding

Funding was provided by the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (No. LY22E020002), the Natural Science Foundation of Ningbo (Nos. 2021J077 and 202003N4099), and K.C. Wong Magna Fund in Ningbo University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Photo-electronic Materials, Ningbo University, Ningbo, 315211, Zhejiang, China

    Pan Lv, Lizhi Fang & Haiping Xia

  2. State Key Laboratory On Integrated Optoelectronics, College of Electronic Science and Engineering and College of Physics, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, Jilin, China

    Hongwei Song

  3. Department of Physics, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian, 116026, Liaoning, China

    Baojiu Chen

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Contributions

All authors contributed to the conception and study of this paper. PL performed the experiment and data analysis and wrote the manuscript. LF helped perform the analysis with constructive discussion. HX* guided the experiments and manuscript editing. HS contributed significantly to analysis. BC contributed to the conception of the study.

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Correspondence to Haiping Xia.

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Lv, P., Fang, L., Xia, H. et al. The effect of GdF3 on red emission of Eu3+: LiYF4 single crystals grown by the Bridgman method. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 33, 21628–21637 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-022-08951-x

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